"Chandelier" Choreographer Ryan Heffington on Dancing in Spring's Best Denim

Ryan Heffington, best known as the choreographer behind **Sia’**s otherworldly “Chandelier,” doesn’t just work with dance prodigies like Maddie Ziegler. He choreographed Arcade Fire’s controversial video “We Exist,” which saw Andrew Garfield as the subject of dance-filled gender exploration, and he’s worked with Shia LaBeouf twice—first during a trippy eight-minute-long Sigur Rós video, as well as another Sia-Ziegler collaboration, “Elastic Heart.”

“I think the goal is to make them feel comfortable and allow them to celebrate the way that they move and not to put too much pressure on choreography per se,” Heffington told us by phone about working with nondancers. “Everyone’s just more attractive when they’re themselves.”

“The goal for this is to kind of bring out the playfulness and their personalities and allowing them to be free,” the L.A.-based artist said of the video. His ethereal take on denim is just the latest in the artist’s reel. Drawing on his experience with dance and theater companies, as well as club work, he’s masterminded dizzying moves for Swedish pop star Lykke Li, Florence and the Machine, and FKA twigs. “I feel like [my experience has] kind of created a new genre of what can be a music video,” he said. “I think I’m bringing something possibly new to the art form.”